I’m Not There Movie Review

Introduction

Truth is, I am not really a big fan of the biography type of movies unless it is about serial killers and also, I am not that thrilled also of musical movies, but I’m Not There would probably my exception since it is about the legendary Bob Dylan.

Let me tell you a little bit about Bob Dylan since this movie is about him and you might as well have the idea of who he is and his influence in the music industry. Bob Dylan was born on May 24, 1941 as Robert Allen Zimmerman. He is an American artist, singer, writer and songwriter. For more than five decades, he has been influential in popular culture and music of which much of his celebrated creations were from the 1960’s.

The lyrics of his songs were a mix of social, literary, political and philosophical influences which are equally different from the already existing pop music conventions and make an appeal to the growing counterculture.

The genre of his songs ranging from country, blues, rock and roll, folk, gospel and rockability to Scottish, Irish folk music and English with a mix of the Great American Songbook and jazz. He was a very accomplished performer and recording artist and this has been the focus of his career, but his greatest contribution would be his talent in writing songs.

Back to “I’m Not There”…

So back to the movie, I’m Not There is a movie that was directed by Todd Haynes and co-written by Oren Moverman, a biographical, musical, drama film that was released in 2007. It was a movie that is inspired by the music and the life of Bob Dylan, the American singer and songwriter.

Six actors portray the various facades of Dylan’s public personality. The following six personas were played by Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw and Marcus Carl Franklin.

An Interesting Storytale

The movie I’m Not There is inspired by the many lives and music of Bob Dylan as the credits in the movie states. It was in 1959 a 12-year-old African-American boy named Marcus Carl Franklin was a traveller and was riding the rails. He introduced himself as Woody Guthrie to the two older hobos he met. He carries around a guitar labelled “This Machine Kills Fascists”.

Woody travels across the country in his desire to become a singer which he later met an African American family where he stayed and taken care of. It was one of the nights that the matron of the family lectured him and so later that nighthe left with a note thanking the family for the hospitality and boarded the freight train.

He was able to fell asleep and be awakened by the thieves attempting to rob him which he was able to get away by jumping off the train and off into the river. A couple found him unconscious, took him into the hospital where he survived.

He was taken into the couple’s home and was taken care of. The couple received a call from juvenile correction centre in Minnesota which Woody escaped. He then leaves and took a train ride to visit the real Woody Guthrie, his idol who is comatose and is slowly dying in the hospital.

Arthur Rimbaud is an artist that is being interrogated and is based on the Dylan of 1964-1965 who nipped the press in boundless interviews. In the interrogation room, he tells people stories and reads prose which looks like he is the narrator of the six stages of the streaming movie.

Then in the online movie there is the fast ascension of Jack Rollins one version of Dylan that focus in the folk era and is narrated by a folk star named Alice basing on Joan Baez. Then there is the Grain of Sand a haunting gospel song “Every Grain of Sand”, where the folk hero is played by actor Robbie Clark. Robbie tells a story about Claire, Dylan’s girlfriend.

The relationship between them became serious until the marriage goes south. Claire catches him with another woman not just once but many times and so Claire left and they had a 50/50 custody of their children.

Jude Quinn is another persona of Bob Dylan which portrays him as a rock singer from the protest singer that he is. This is the unstable side of him, using drugs and talking in obscene languages.

The film also shows, Billy who is based on the Dylan that is withdrew from the public, the older and the seldom-seen Dylan). Billy is the aged loner who lived with his dog Henry. Billy had a lot of flashbacks from his previous memory of what he has been. He was then arrested by authorities, jailed and was able to escape and released a statement towards the end of the free movie.

The film ended with a clip of Bob Dylan from the documentary Eat the document where he played with his harmonica and the film fades away.

Short Review

Upon the release of the hd movie in 2007, it has received a lot of positive responses and a lot of good reviews both from critics and viewers. The film biography is viewed as complex like the topic itself, exhausting because of the changing of characters, 6 characters in fact but very entertaining to watch.

The actors and actress who played the role of Bob Dylan did a very excellent job most especially Cate Blanchett. The director was able to integrate multitude of styles and the editing is continuous.

The only thing that puzzled a lot is that why the different personas of Bob Dylan have different names and his name is not in it when this movie is supposed to be about him.

Summary

The hd online movie, being a biography and musical in nature, plus the fact that it is about the life and music of Bob Dylan, I would give it 4 out of 5. It has all the entertaining factor of a musical and it shows the life of Bob Dylan. Each character was carried out well by the actors and actresses. It was very well performed and nobody fall short of what is expected of them. But I do agree that there are points that it is confusing at some point.

There are different names to each Bob Dylan’s character which contradicts the point of making this a biography about him. Aside from that downside, nevertheless, the on line movie was very entertaining especially those who are a big fan of Bob Dylan’s masterpiece. It is indeed a very good free movie to watch in Megamovies,as it is something fresh and well really get you interested in.